Expedition

(upbeat music) Jebel Shams is kind of like the middle east equivalent of the Grand Canyon, and the very first drop is over 400 meters. So, that's higher than the Empire State building in one single uninterrupted drop. It's just not one of those things that people do, doing a single drop 400 meter abseil. My name is Aldo Cain. My role on this expedition was lead technical rope safety advisor. That's the biggest abseil I've ever done by a long way. There's always something about just going over the edge for the first time regardless of how many times you do it. There's no easy or quick way about rigging something like this. It just takes a lot of time and a lot of effort. (epic music) Gonna bang the bolts in these now. In 45 degree plus. The exposure here is pretty insane. To rig the abseil it took myself and Justin between eight and 10 hours rigging in the full heat of the day. This (mumbles) get us into these situations. It's heat like I've never felt before. It's my job to ensure that everyone else that's going down the rope is safest. Their lives are in my hands. Steve was the first person down. Once we got onto the ropes, there is no coming back. The only way out is down. This was the longest single drop abseil that either Aldo or I have done before. Once I managed to hulk up the rope below me and clip it back through a second anchor I'd increased my friction and I slowed down to a good pace, I also had good, thick gloves on, I wrapped the rope around my legs and my boots to slow myself a little bit more. Down, alive, safe, you beauty. I've done some pretty big abseils in the past, but this was on a whole different scale. (epic music) I then connected to the ropes, but at this point I've been rigging for almost 10, 12 hours. Going down. I'm also carrying a bag which has around about 50, 60 kilograms of anchors, bolts, more ropes, and when I swung out into open space I noticed that I was going a bit too fast. Feel like, need more friction. (dramatic music) And when you're free hanging, you're spinning around like a spider on a web. Just had a bit of an epic up there. I basically put a bit too much friction on, too little sorry. And I got about 50 meters down, it wasn't enough. And I started to slip, so I had to (grunts), I had to spend 10 minutes climbing up and trying to sort my position out. In the process of doing that, I had completely used up all of the energy that I had left. I'm probably only a third of the way down. (dramatic music) I think on the thermometer it was probably about 45 which is really, really hot. You've got white rock reflecting the heat back up at you. Even the wind was hot, and Aldo certainly took a real hammering. I need a drink. (dramatic music) I mean, I had drank probably seven or eight liters during the day, but that still wasn't enough. Really, I was, I was running on empty. All I can do is focus on the next 10 seconds. I'm not good. I knew that if I didn't get down to the ground quickly then I was going to end up in a bit of a bad way. (Aldo grunts) Ah, cramp, (grunts) dehydrated. And the first signs for heat exhaustion was that I was sweating profusely, had lost a lot of fluids, and then you start to get incredibly hot and dry, you stop sweating, and I can just feel the blood pulsing through my temples. Every time I had to heave up the rope I was cramping. My hand were in knots basically around the rope. I had to physically pry my fingers back and stretch my arms, and when you get to that stage where nothing works, it's then quite a bad day. (Aldo grunts) Watching Aldo in trouble above me was one of those paralyzing things, where you know there's nothing you can do. Aldo, what's going on? Man, I can't even (groans), I can't hold the rope (groans), ah! (dramatic music) Ah! (dramatic music) By jumping onto the rope, I could slow his decent, so I got up there, got my weight on the rope, and did everything I could to slow him down. Nearly there mate, nearly there. All right, bring me in. What do you think, or are you okay come in here? Just hang with me mate, I just need off. Every thing's cramping mate. Grab. I think when you go through situations like this, where you're taken right to the edge, it does form fast, strong friendships. You know our friendship and our bond is definitely stronger now. You always try and give help to everyone that you can on an expedition, because you never know when you're going to be that person that needs help. And for me, when I was on that rope, I needed Steve. Thank you dude. But it's about keeping that mental, physical, and emotional resilience, and eventually having cheerfulness in the face of adversity. (dramatic music)